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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Putting the "Fund" in AR's Housing Trust Fund

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Thursday, April 4, 2013   

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It may be time to put the "fund" into the Arkansas Housing Trust Fund. It has not yet received any state money in the four years since it was created. However, last week a bill passed the state Senate to allocate up to $4 million to the fund - $1 million for each congressional district. The money would be used to make improvements to older homes, give rental assistance to low-income Arkansans and spur construction of new affordable housing.

Rick Pierce, who serves on the steering committee for Housing Arkansas, said it can boost local jobs as well as improve Arkansas' aging housing stock.

"This money that the state basically invests will be leveraged several times over," he said. "Arkansas honestly could come in somewhere between three or four to one - for every dollar invested, you'd see three or four additional dollars put in."

Backers of the bill (HB 1061, SB 728) said it is important for the state to pitch in to help solve the housing shortage, especially since federal funds for housing programs have been cut 30 percent in the past two years. However, the legislation only makes the funds available if lawmakers can allocate money from the General Improvement Fund for the next fiscal year.

The need for more and better-quality housing in Arkansas has been well publicized: Three-quarters of the state's homes and apartments were built before 1980.

Lou Tobian, an Arkansas Housing Trust Fund advisory committee member, said there are two problems many Arkansans face: finding a place to live and being able to afford it.

"It's both," Tobian said. "Incomes are low and rental prices are high. And the amount of accessible, decent housing? There isn't enough to meet the needs of all the people who would want it."

According to Tobian, 44 percent of lower-income households and more than 50 percent of Arkansans over age 65 spend more than half of their monthly income on housing. It is a problem in both rural and urban areas, he added.




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